While there is enormous brand power in having your own dedicated app to serve your students and community, the options to enter the Mobile Learning market can feel both costly and limited. Many businesses think they cannot afford to hire an app development company.

If you want to give your student the ability to access your courses through a mobile device, you only have a few choices.

1. A mobile optimized members area for your website 👎

This may seem like an easy and obvious solution but it comes with a lot of drawbacks, which is why it’s not very popular for mobile learning.

Without a mobile-first approach to your mobile learning environment, it will be hard to keep your students engaged with your content and complete your course. A slow performing site with a poor user-experience will dramatically reduce enjoyment.

And a mobile optimized website simply can’t leverage the benefits of mobile learning, such as instant access to course materials, push notifications and real-time knowledge sharing that keep your students engaged wherever they go.

2. Upload your content to a platform like Udemy, Skillshare or Teachable which have apps made for their users 👎

The problem with these platforms is that…

• • You can’t control the user experience.

• • There’s no way to add custom functionality.

• • There’s limitations to your monetization options.

• • Your brand gets meshed with all your competition.

• • You don’t have complete control over your students data.

• And, your students get remarketed to by the platform for your competitors!

While they are good platforms for student learning and helping course creators publish their hard work, these platforms don’t give you the satisfaction, control or branding prestige of creating your very own mobile product.

3. A cookie-cutter mobile app builder 👎

There is a huge assortment of app development companies out there – so many that it’s difficult to tell which are even any good.

The majority of app builders are not made to leverage the power of mobile mLearning.  Their primary purpose is to simply display content from your blog or social channels – this doesn’t create any real benefits to your community.  None of them offer a central hub to keep your brands content updated on both desktop and mobile.

Many brands try to leverage app builders, invest thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to get their students using them, only to fall short and shut the app down. A poor user experience can lead to a poor brand experience and ultimately hurt your business.

4. Hiring an app development company to create your custom app 👍

This can be very expensive.

Most agencies charge between $40,000 to $80,000 and beyond for apps comparable in power and quality to those used by mobile-first brands like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger.

And once the app is done, you will need to continue to pay the app development company to keep the app updated. This costs tens of thousands of dollars every year.

We recognized these challenges for course creators to enter the mobile learning market, so we created LearnerApp. Our team will develop, design, launch and support your native app for a cost 80% less than the typical custom development project.

We’re excited to give course creators like you the mobile app development services to create a world class learning experience for your students.

Apply here for a free Mobile Learner Platform Assessment.

Hired your app development company but need tips on design? Check out How to Tailor Online Training for Millennial Workers.